These rabbinical students came to lift fire-scarred Redding's spirits in a rocking Hanukkah RV

We've heard of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, but it's not actually in the Jewish Torah. So what is Hanukkah, and where does it come from?
USA TODAY

Rabbinical students Mendel Kalmanson of Cincinnati, Ohio, Chaim Heber of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Mendel Winner of Brighton Beach, N.Y., pose with Debra Fischer of Florence, Ore., on Thursday in Redding. The three men are part of a group of rabbinical students traveling the West Coast who are spreading Hanukkah cheer.(Photo: Photo by Shimon Gansburg)

She was traveling to Florence, Oregon, after a recent trip to Paradise and Magalia, where three homes she owned burned down last month in the Camp Fire.

She stopped in Redding and was taking her dog for a walk in the parking lot outside the US Bank on Dana Drive when she saw a motorhome decorated with a large menorah taped on one side and a banner proclaiming "Happy Hanukkah!" on another side.

"You don't see that every day, right?" said Fischer, who is Jewish. "I thought it was cool. It was actually a blessing for me, as well."

Intrigued by the sight, she walked over and met with the five young men in the RV, who after talking with her gave her a small menorah as a gift.

But they also gave her another gift she needed after her recent visit to Butte County.

"They said they were spreading light in the darkness. There's been so much darkness with the fires and everything," she said. "They just reminded me of the light of God."

Students from a rabbinical school in Los Angeles stopped to spread Hanukkah cheer outside the Target store in Redding on their way to Washington.(Photo: Photo by Mendel Winner)

The five young men are rabbinical students traveling from Los Angeles to Seattle, stopping at cities along the way to spread Hanukkah cheer, said Levi Shmotkin, 21, of Stamford, Connecticut.

In each of the cities where they stop, their aim is to spread Hanukkah cheer with music blaring from their RV — and give out latkes, a potato pancake.

Shmotkin said residents of Shasta and Butte counties needed some cheering up after the devastating fires they endured in 2018.

"We decided to bring the light of Hanukkah throughout the West Coast," Shmotkin said.

Shmotkin said this is the first year he and other students from the Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad in Los Angeles have made the 3,000-mile West Coast trip. The school trains students to become rabbis.

After leaving Redding on Thursday night they planned to drive to Eugene, Oregon, to spend the night.

During their trip they also planned to perform a Hanukkah play at a Jewish school in Issaquah, Washington. They also were scheduled to drive their rented motorhome in a Hanukkah parade in downtown Seattle, Shmotkin said.

Everywhere they go, they plan to hand out menorahs and spread Hanukkah cheer, he said.

Hanukkah is a Jewish tradition that celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after defeating the Syrian-Greeks who at the time ruled the Holy Land. The eight-day celebration started this past Sunday and ends next Monday.

But Shmotkin said lighting the menorah also has other important spiritual and symbolic meanings.

"The idea is to bring the spirit of Hanukkah, where light overcomes darkness," he said.

On their way back to Los Angeles, they plan to stop in Chico to meet and spread some cheer with others affected by the Camp Fire.